The situation at Eurocontrol is complicated : social dialogue might be at stake. On the 29th of May, the 4 Trade Unions (TU) of Eurocontrol, as well as the SCS and CSC representatives met, for the 4th day in a row, to discuss the Director General’s proposal on financial solidarity  as it was distributed to the members earlier this week. Already yesterday, the 4 TU confirmed their support of that part of the package, that doesn’t require a change of the current statutes. This amounts to already €24 million out of a total of €28 million for the budgetary year 2020.

The Director General confirmed that the missing €4 million are considered to be the crucial ones, since these would be derived from the staff directly. According to him, the Member States of EUROCONTROL “want to see staff suffer”. The 4 Trade Unions understood the symbolism of staff contributing directly to the current crisis.

For this reason, the TU, SCS and CSC agreed on a common position (see below), taking into account the DG’s request to consider items 4.1.e-h of his proposal. In this context, the Trade Unions also confirmed their support of voluntary leave in the interest of the service according to Art. 42c but insisted that a mandatory LIIS could not be accepted. After today’s presentation of the TU’s counterproposal to the DG, the meetings was interrupted for a short break. Following the break, the Director General expressed his discontent with the Unions’ proposal even though it covered the same missing €4 million that were in the original one. It is beyond our understanding that the DG resisted in going into further discussions and negotiations on those items that were not to his complete satisfaction. Instead, the Director General concluded the meeting after only 10 minutes, leaving the 4 Trade Unions in uncertainty. This shows that, at Eurocontrol, the social dialogue might be at stake.

USB, USEF, FFPE and TUEM are convinced their proposal is more than reasonable, for many reasons. Apart from some of the DG’s original ideas not being legally steady, our counterproposal covers the exact amount as originally required. We also repeatedly stressed that each item would of course be open for discussion, something that the Director General does not want to consider. This is unfortunately reconfirming the deterioration of social dialogue within the last 2,5 years, ending where we are today: in a position that decisions are imposed onto staff.

The social partners of EUROCONTROL are standing together united in these difficult times for our members and will continue to work in the best interest of not only our members but all Agency staff.

Interested to learn more about Eurocontrol  Staff Unions counter proposal to the financial solidarity measures ? Read here.